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Some people will put up with a lot of what they regard as mistreatment on these wikis out of the belief that they shouldn't give in by letting people drive them out; they should instead try to turn the tide or at least do what good they can within the framework of the existing system and culture, flawed as it may be. I'm not sure what makes people finally change their minds and leave. It may be that other alternative forums and venues have opened up on the Internet for people to share information (e.g. Quora, third-party wikis, even Facebook), and so Wikipedia doesn't seem as important as it used to. On the other hand, Wikipedia remains a top-ten website and one of the most effective ways of sharing information with the world, for those who are willing to put up with the BS; the same usually can't be said of those alternatives. | Some people will put up with a lot of what they regard as mistreatment on these wikis out of the belief that they shouldn't give in by letting people drive them out; they should instead try to turn the tide or at least do what good they can within the framework of the existing system and culture, flawed as it may be. I'm not sure what makes people finally change their minds and leave. It may be that other alternative forums and venues have opened up on the Internet for people to share information (e.g. Quora, third-party wikis, even Facebook), and so Wikipedia doesn't seem as important as it used to. On the other hand, Wikipedia remains a top-ten website and one of the most effective ways of sharing information with the world, for those who are willing to put up with the BS; the same usually can't be said of those alternatives. | ||
It could also be that enwiki and meta's cultures have become less forgiving of mistakes, misbehavior, and even dissent, and the prospects of those cultures' becoming more tolerant in the future have become ever dimmer (due, I think, to [http://meta.inclumedia.org/wiki/Sanger%27s_Law Sanger's Law]), so that there is less incentive to contribute. If you know that there is no path to redemption in which one could, by establishing a recent track record of good contributions, having the same opportunities as other editors for achieving respect and the other rewards of being an editor, then there is less incentive to come back. But I'm not sure how much people care about those rewards; wiki editing always was mostly thankless, but people did it anyway because it was addictive and they were obsessed. Making what they regarded as improvements to articles produced a crack-like thrill of immediate gratification. What was it that made this stop being so appealing? I don't know. It might be that people got into a pattern of quitting and then relapsing, but now when they feel the urge to relapse, they pick an alternative place to contribute their knowledge (similar to how ex-smokers these days often turn to vaping or the patch), and it prevents them from getting hooked again. As they say, for the wiki addict one edit is too many and [http://gawker.com/5903403/guy-becomes-first-person-to-make-one-million-wikipedia-edits a million never enough]; but if you can stop yourself from making that one edit that brings you back from your wikibreak, then you won't get started down the slippery slope to a million. | It could also be that enwiki and meta's cultures have become less forgiving of mistakes, misbehavior, and even dissent, and the prospects of those cultures' becoming more tolerant in the future have become ever dimmer (due, I think, to [http://meta.inclumedia.org/wiki/Sanger%27s_Law Sanger's Law]), so that there is less incentive to contribute. If you know that there is no path to redemption in which one could, by establishing a recent track record of good contributions, having the same opportunities as other editors for achieving respect and the other rewards of being an editor, then there is less incentive to come back. But I'm not sure how much people care about those rewards; wiki editing always was mostly thankless, but people did it anyway because it was addictive and they were obsessed. | ||
Making what they regarded as improvements to articles produced a crack-like thrill of immediate gratification. What was it that made this stop being so appealing? I don't know. It might be that people got into a pattern of quitting and then relapsing, but now when they feel the urge to relapse, they pick an alternative place to contribute their knowledge (similar to how ex-smokers these days often turn to vaping or the patch), and it prevents them from getting hooked again. As they say, for the wiki addict one edit is too many and [http://gawker.com/5903403/guy-becomes-first-person-to-make-one-million-wikipedia-edits a million never enough]; but if you can stop yourself from making that one edit that brings you back from your wikibreak, then you won't get started down the slippery slope to a million. | |||
One could say some of the same things about wiki retirement that one could about real-life suicide. There are a lot more suicidal threats than actual suicides, but currently there are [http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/shrink-rap-today/201305/rising-suicide-rates-have-we-simply-failed rising suicide rates in the U.S.] Maybe people are simply getting burnt out, but it's hard to tell. Even the people who are finally about to make that step over the ledge, after contemplating it for a long time, might not be able to say what makes this time different than all the other times they thought of doing it. Likewise, I can't really tell you why I finally left enwiki; I was disgruntled with the culture all along, and although it's gotten worse, there's still stuff I would regard as useful that could be accomplished by going back. For some reason I just don't feel like it, though. | One could say some of the same things about wiki retirement that one could about real-life suicide. There are a lot more suicidal threats than actual suicides, but currently there are [http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/shrink-rap-today/201305/rising-suicide-rates-have-we-simply-failed rising suicide rates in the U.S.] Maybe people are simply getting burnt out, but it's hard to tell. Even the people who are finally about to make that step over the ledge, after contemplating it for a long time, might not be able to say what makes this time different than all the other times they thought of doing it. Likewise, I can't really tell you why I finally left enwiki; I was disgruntled with the culture all along, and although it's gotten worse, there's still stuff I would regard as useful that could be accomplished by going back. For some reason I just don't feel like it, though. | ||